KARACHI, April 18: Lawyers on Wednesday stayed away from courts and staged a sit-in in front of the Sindh Chief Minister’s House as Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry attended a hearing in Islamabad into misconduct charges laid by the president.
Emotionally charged protesters set fire to large portraits of the chief minister. Screaming slogans of “Go Musharraf, go”, they demanded that the federal ministers for information and law resign without delay.
Karachi Bar Association President Iftikhar Javaid Qazi, General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi, members Munsif Khan and Anwar Memon spoke to a KBA general body meeting which was held outside the city court.
They said lawyers were united and determined to wage a campaign for the reinstatement of the chief justice, who was made non-functional by the president on March 9.
They said the government was bent upon driving a wedge between them. However, they expressed satisfaction over the amicable manner in which differences between lawyers and journalists had been resolved.
Lawyers took out a procession in front of the city court. As a result, the arterial M.A. Jinnah Road remained closed to vehicular traffic for about half an hour. They then marched towards Hasan Ali Effendi Road and Shahrah-i-Liaquat and entered the Sindh High Court from Courts Road. They were joined by members of the Malir Bar Association on the premises of the high court. Sindh High Court Bar Association members came out from the bar room and also joined the main procession of the lawyers from the SHC building.
The lawyers made for the main gate of the Sindh Assembly building and, chanting slogans against the chief minister, staged a sit-in on Courts Road.
Pakistan Bar Council members Yasin Azad and Abul Inam, Sindh Bar Council vice chairman Mohammad Amin Lakhani, member Mehmood-ul-Hasan, Karachi Bar Association president Iftikhar Javaid Qazi, General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi, Malir Bar Association president Zahoor Hussain Mehar and senior lawyers Mohammad Ali Abbasi and Rasheed A. Rizvi spoke to the participants of the rally.
They said the appointment of the acting chief justice was illegal and unconstitutional. They asked Justice Rana Bhagwandas to tender his resignation. They said they believed that Justice Chaudhry was still chief justice. They recalled that Justice Chaudhry had already expressed his reservations about two members of the Supreme Judicial Council. They praised the Sindh High Court judges who attended a reception given to the chief justice in Hyderabad.
The lawyers decided that at least 50,000 members of their fraternity would stage a sit-in in Islamabad one of these days to press their demands.
Seven KBA members observed a token hunger strike in the city courts. They were Mohammad Rehan Qureshi, Abdul Qadir Memon, Mohammad Aslam, Iqbal Baloch, Pervez Akhtar Butt, Syed Qaiser Ali and Ashfaq Satti.
BOOKED FOR VIOLENCE: Over 250 lawyers, including the president and the general-secretary of the Karachi Bar Association, were booked on Wednesday for resorting to violent activities in front of the Chief Minister’s House.
The Artillery Maidan police registered the case against lawyers under sections 147, 148 and 186 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Additional SHO Inspector Aley Abbas Jaffery.
Police said KBA president Iftikhar Javaid Qazi and general-secretary Naeem Qureshi, Peoples’ Lawyers Forum president Shahadat Awan, Naheed Afzal, Yasin Azad and Aqil Lodhi were named in the FIR.
KARACHI, April 18: Lawyers on Wednesday stayed away from courts and staged a sit-in in front of the Sindh Chief Minister’s House as Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry attended a hearing in Islamabad into misconduct charges laid by the president.
